I disagree with you. Not all get their requests met, but many do. Numbers mean votes so a point comes when local politicians see their position at risk when there are very large numbers of people against what they are pushing. Mind you, being Qld, it's harder to say.

[–] fizzle@quokk.au 2 points 5 days ago (12 children)

but many do

Do you have any examples if issues where a petition in and of itself has influenced an outcome?

Politicians know that clicking on a petition you saw on social media isn't going to influence someone's vote.

Conversely, when people "sign" a petition they feel like they've had their say and don't take any further action.

It's worse than a waste of time.

Have you called your local government representative? Usually they're very happy to discuss things. There's no point just saying what you want. You need to ask them where it's up to in the process and what the contentious issues are. Often, councillors don't actually have any ability to intervene. For example they won't be able to exclude a specific buyer or developer.

[–] arbilp3@aussie.zone 3 points 5 days ago

I forgot to add that environment and other activist organisations find that if their petitions to government are well supported by the general public it gives them more ammo to advocate for causes.

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